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Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

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Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#151

Post by callalex »

wyldfire wrote: post #66
dragontamer wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you using a Google Pixel 6/7/8 ? Its widely accepted that Google Pixel's radio is weaker than the competition. Google stopped using Qualcomm chipsets on Google Pixel 6. (Or the last time Google used a Qualcomm radio in its phones was in Pixel 5 generation). I'm sure Google is working on making its radio better, but it still a shame that of all the things they decided to cut to make it cheaper / hit the $600 price…

> Qualcomm is basically raising prices behind the scenes > it still a shame that of all the things they decided to cut to make it cheaper / hit the $600 pricepoint (instead of the $800+ flagship tier) is... the radio. If it's truly a shame that they went to a lower-performing competitor then maybe Qualcomm thinks that their modem is worth more than they were charging because they provide a superior product.

True but it’s unclear how much the performance difference is from Qualcomm delivering value vs. Qualcomm destroying competitors’ value through blatant patent trolling.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#152

Post by Aloha »

samtheprogram wrote: post #82
tw04 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think someone else wouldn’t have picked up the pieces? Whether that be dish/comcast/google, or just some private equity. Being acquired by a competitor wasn’t their only exit option, and pretty much anything else would’ve resulted in more competition.

Sprint had outdated technology w.r.t their infrastructure and cell towers, so an outside acquirer didn’t make as much sense. It needed an existing player with more advanced infrastructure to take on the customer base, or a large investment in upgrading it’s own infrastructure.

By the time they merged with T-Mobile, they had a fully modern LTE network - I know because I helped to deploy it.

That never would have happened without Softbank buying them however.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#153

Post by cyberax »

aiauthoritydev wrote: post #106
hedora wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The regulators could have forced the big four carriers (now three) into a common carrier model. In that setup, all cell providers would effectively be an MVNO, and the three (then, four) physical networks would be operated at arms length from the consumer facing side. Also, the four networks could be structured so that their financial incentives were to improve cell coverage and bandwidth instead of undermining each…

The best way to resolve these issues is never "force the bad guys to do good things" but rather destroy the walls which enable their rent seeking. Regulators can work to make it extremely simple for new techs in this space to come up so there is real competition for ATT etc.

> The best way to resolve these issues is never "force the bad guys to do good things" but rather destroy the walls which enable their rent seeking.

The walls here are defined by physics. There's only so much spectrum to go around.

You can't have more than 3-4 large cell phone operators working in the same area. Decoupling the radio part and forcing everyone to play as MVNOs is a way to work around this.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#154

Post by Aloha »

TheAmazingRace wrote: post #5

I will say, I'm not terribly fond of mergers on principle. However, based on my insight as a former customer and shareholder of the company, Sprint's goose was most definitely cooked to a crisp. If this merger had not happened, I could have seen Sprint file for bankruptcy, with Verizon and AT&T picking the carcass clean. I think folks forget how dire Sprint's straits were at the time, and this specific merger truly w…

You're spot on, I posted a long comment downthread elsewhere, but you're 100% correct here.

Sprint lost money basically every year after they merged with Nextel (having to pay for rebanding was part of it).

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#155

Post by Dylan16807 »

wyldfire wrote: post #66
dragontamer wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you using a Google Pixel 6/7/8 ? Its widely accepted that Google Pixel's radio is weaker than the competition. Google stopped using Qualcomm chipsets on Google Pixel 6. (Or the last time Google used a Qualcomm radio in its phones was in Pixel 5 generation). I'm sure Google is working on making its radio better, but it still a shame that of all the things they decided to cut to make it cheaper / hit the $600 price…

> Qualcomm is basically raising prices behind the scenes > it still a shame that of all the things they decided to cut to make it cheaper / hit the $600 pricepoint (instead of the $800+ flagship tier) is... the radio. If it's truly a shame that they went to a lower-performing competitor then maybe Qualcomm thinks that their modem is worth more than they were charging because they provide a superior product.

Having a better product and charging more for it very quickly becomes overcharging in a market that has such limited competition.

Their premium was very very likely already plenty.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#156

Post by johnkpaul »

bt3 wrote: post #24
Schnitz wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prepaid sounds great unless you ever want roaming, it’s either straight up not possible or priced in a way that makes it impractical.

Data-only global eSims are super cheap. Having done a lot of international travel lately, this is undoubtedly the best way to go. Cheaper and better coverage too.

Where would you recommend someone find one of these? Do they expire, or could I get one to cover years worth of travel? Thanks!

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#157

Post by Aloha »

nradov wrote: post #90
issafram wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean Sprint was strictly CDMA, so that would be an issue on it's own.

Sprint had started as CDMA. They were in the process of building a 5G network but lacked the capital necessary for competitive nationwide coverage.

They didnt start to build their LTE network until 2012-13.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#158

Post by Aloha »

issafram wrote: post #77
hedora wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The regulators could have forced the big four carriers (now three) into a common carrier model. In that setup, all cell providers would effectively be an MVNO, and the three (then, four) physical networks would be operated at arms length from the consumer facing side. Also, the four networks could be structured so that their financial incentives were to improve cell coverage and bandwidth instead of undermining each…

I mean Sprint was strictly CDMA, so that would be an issue on it's own.

CDMA, from an RF performance perspective regularly outperformed GSM, but as is noted downthread, the provisioning/auth system was inherited from AMPS/D-AMPS, CDMA2000 with a GSM network core would have been amazing.

Which, tbh, is exactly what LTE is.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#159

Post by Aloha »

fooey wrote: post #34
TheAmazingRace wrote: post #5

I will say, I'm not terribly fond of mergers on principle. However, based on my insight as a former customer and shareholder of the company, Sprint's goose was most definitely cooked to a crisp. If this merger had not happened, I could have seen Sprint file for bankruptcy, with Verizon and AT&T picking the carcass clean. I think folks forget how dire Sprint's straits were at the time, and this specific merger truly w…

Were they legitimately in financial straights? or was it the thing where they want to force regulators to allow the deal by blowing up their own company? For example, Albertsons is blatantly doing this so Kroger can acquire them.

Yes, they consistently lost money from 2008-2019.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#160

Post by ericcumbee »

Aloha wrote: post #148
Benjammer wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Sprint's goose was most definitely cooked The reason their goose was cooked is because they previously were planning to acquire T Mobile, but SoftBank got back-channel info that it would never be approved by the anti-trust regulators. At the time they had Marcelo Claure running Sprint, basically a corporate "fixer" guy for SoftBank. So he ran the company into the dirt in order to make the merge feasible to regulator…

I don't think that materially really had anything to do with it. Sprint was dying - with extraordinarily high debt, in 2007, well before Softbank bought them, and indeed they lost money every year from 2008 forward - https://www.statista.com/statistics/481739/sprint-corporatio... The Merger with Nextel managed to kill what was great about Nextel, and what was good about Sprint, and they lost customers in droves (most…

and then there was also the Wimax debacle. Sprint had invested pretty heavily in Wimax being their future network before they realized this wasnt going to work.
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